If it was able to fit a niche market and seat enough people, it could work on certain routes (not sure exactly which ones, I am not a route planner). But, four-engined jets do have some high maintenance costs that are tough to offset with that small of a plane, as mentioned earlier.

Quoting drerx7 (Reply 8):The BAe146 and Avros have been surpassed by more efficient twins now. There is probably a niche for this type of aircraft...I just don't know what it is.

Probably for a:nutters like myself!!! I'm sure they are inefficient to operate, but I just like them! I flew a Blue1 Avro a couple of years ago just to fly one; it was a flight quite out of my way but I was happy to do it!!

Quoting wedgetail737 (Reply 9):
That's more than likely true, but the 146's were fun to fly when they were around in the US.

It is true, and unfortunately few people care what type of plane they are on, so "fun" doesn't matter as much as economics. This thing might look neat as a commercial a/c...but it will never be one. I'll put $$$ on that!

According to Wikipedia, there is a proposed commercial derivative, albeit probably twin engined. I suspect from the absence of recent activity, that this will remain a paper project. Impressive to build a purpose built 4 engined MPA, when the US are using modifed 737s though.

Quote:"Plans are also under way to develop the YP-X, a 120-150 seat passenger aircraft derived from the XP-1. This aircraft could compete with future Boeing's and Airbus narrowbodies, as well as Bombardier's CSeries.

It would complete a Japanese-made series of passenger jets, complementing Mitsubishi Aircraft's 70-90 seat Mitsubishi Regional Jet and a 100-120 seater that Mitsubishi might collaborate on with Boeing. However, plans are still at an early stage.

'We are now only studying the possibility for the YP-X,' says Motoyama. 'The business environment is changing day by day and we don't know what will be needed in the future. This is a longer-term project for the company'."

Quoting rbgso (Reply 16):Seems like they could stretch the thing. If it has STOL ability, on short runs maybe it could work. Get the thing approved for LCY and you may have a market. The Bae-146s have to be replaced sometime.

The type may be a bit big for LCY.

Quoting UAL747DEN (Reply 23):Speaking of the Bae-146, are there a lot of (any) VIP configured aircraft? I would love to see what they could do inside of that.